Some big changes are afoot at Lenovo.
Just last week the hardware giant saw Rick Osterloh, the former president of Motorola Mobility depart amidst restructuring at the acquired smartphone maker, including the phasing out of the Motorola name in favour of the Lenovo brand.
Now, the company has lifted the lid on just how widespread the structural changes are. All changes are effective April 1.
Lenovo’s PC Group PC & Smart Device Business Group
Formerly known as the PC Group, the business unit has been rebranded to reflect a new focus on not just PCs but also detatchables, tablets, phablets, gaming and smart home products across Windows, Chrome and Android based products. According to Lenovo, the smart device market is still “emerging.”
The new group will be led by Gianfranco Lanci, Lenovo group president and COO who continues to report to Lenovo’s Chairman and CEO, Yang Yuanqing. Lenovo’s geographic sales and global operations organizations will continue to report to Lanci.
The Enterprise Business Group Data Center Group (DCG)
Lenovo says that the newly christened Data Center Group is an end-to-end business within the company and will be more nimble.
It is meant to be open, partnership-focused, and will accommodate traditional, hyperscale and hyperconverged customers. Heading the new unit as president will be Gerry Smith, who now reports to Lenovo’s Chairman and CEO. Peter Hortensius, currently Lenovo Group’s CTO, will join DCG as both CTO and head of strategy. Hortensius will also continue acting as Lenovo’s global CTO until a replacement is found, and Qingtong Zhou will join DCG as CFO, while remaining Lenovo’s global CIO.
The Mobile Business Group
Osterloh’s departure from Motorola Mobility saw Aymar de Lencquesaing shift from his role as Lenovo’s President of North America to co-president of the company’s Mobile Business Group. His counterpart Xudong Chen will focus on China, which Lenovo admits is a very different market compared to the rest of the world.
The Ecosystem and Cloud Services (ECS) Group Capital and Incubator Group
In an unusual move, Lenovo is axing the word “Cloud” from its list of business units.
“While cloud is critical to the future, the landscape for the ECS Group has changed,” the company said. “Lenovo can now take better advantage of opportunities in ecosystem innovation. Because Lenovo must continue to differentiate through a “device + cloud” strategy, the product-related personal cloud services functions of ECS will be moved into the business groups delivering end to end customer experiences in their own product and service areas.”
George He, formerly head of ECS, will lead the new group, which will focus on developing new technologies, spinoffs and investing in standalone startups.
